food, outside time, and a scare

Here are a few things that went on the other day. We "started" our new diet yesterday. Although I hesitate to say we started yesterday as this has been a journey for us. But non the less we have huge changes that we are making. So yesterday we started with a not very green smoothie. I am going to work our way up to more and more greens as the girls were a bit skeptical of it, even though they've had them before. But there are so many other changes that I thought it would be only fair to go slow in some areas. For snack we had some nut balls and fruit. For lunch I made this very, VERY scrumptious hummus spread. I roasted some garlic and red bell pepper to add to the chick peas, olive oil, tahinni and lemon juice. It was great! We spread it on whole wheat tortillas and then topped it with salad, and a bit of Italian dressing. Oh, my, the oldest two girls are begging that it be for today's lunch as well. Then we had some popcorn for an afternoon snack, with olive oil, salt and nutritional yeast. I thought that the girls didn't like the yeast, but I was wrong and they wanted to eat all of mine! For dinner we had "mac and cheese". But totally not the real thing. However it was quite good. The girls kept sneaking bites of it.

We spent some time outdoors as it was 60 degrees out. They had a lot of fun. I took a bunch of pictures. You'll see them below.

As for the scare.....well, in we came from the great outdoors. Daddy had just come home and he decided to get started on the girls history right away. Jedidiah had gone into the back room where the play castle is located. I was cooking dinner. Right before Jeremiah sat down to read I asked him to go check on Jedidiah. I noticed I hadn't seen him come out of the room, nor did I hear him playing. We called out to him, and we fully expected him to answer us back. I had worked on that for quite a while, teaching him to answer us back to us when we call him. But we heard nothing. So we called again. I looked very quickly to see that my bedroom and the back bathroom gate were closed. He loves water....too much sometimes. Thankfully they were closed. Jeremiah said, "Don't worry, I know he's still back in the play room as he hasn't come out of there yet." So he looks, and comes out saying, he's not back there. We call again, and again!!!! Still nothing. The girls assured us that the doors to the outside were closed as well. Jeremiah and I were both getting worried. Where in the world could he be? Our hearts were pounding, and I was starting to shake. We told him we were not playing hide and seek and that he needed to answer us. Still nothing. And then we saw this, behind the puppet theater:




I wanted to scoop him up and hug him tight!! He is still in his outside gear as Jed has a bit a time transitioning between activities sometimes. After his nap, and dinner we headed out to get him some new boots as he outgrew the ones he is wearing above. Poor Jonah was a basket case! That poor baby cried all the way to the store, then at least for half the store trip and then half of the way home. He was off to bed the minute we stepped into the house :-)

I am in the process of uploading some cute videos to my youtube channel. Because we don't have the right type of format it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r..........to upload. Seriously, the three videos will probably take at least six hours to upload. But when they do I will post here to let you know they are ready for your viewing pleasure :-)

Isabella would like you all to know she will be having a new post ready to be read soon!

Isa and Moira in their newly built tent.

Moira being all girly :-)

Flannery working on some "dirt cake".

Saoirse and Flannery looking cute.

Flannery still working on that cake.

Saoirse came outside with my hooded sweatshirt on and I had to take a picture.

Isabella was unaware at first that I was trying to get her picture, but when she saw me she flashed me this pretty smile.

I took about one hundred pictures of Jed, but he didn't stand still long enough for me to get a good one. This is the best one of the bunch.

Saoirse looking up and being a camera ham.

Our lovely dinner. Yummy.

Our fabulous lunch. I can still taste that hummus! I need to go make me some hummus, veggie wrap :-)